Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Congratulations to Candice and Monique for their hard work in completing the Community Culinary School program. Their graduation comes in the nick of time as the Second Helping coffee cart gets ready to open it's coffee mugs for business.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

I would like to give all honor and glory to God for making this possible for me .If it was not for him I wouldn't be blessed with this opportunity and I wouldn't have a clue were I would be.

Currently, I am currently a client of Changed Choices and I'm also part business owner of Seconding Helping, which has given me a second chance in life and a chance to do things a little different.

I have chosen to go back to school to open up "Seconding Helping". My days in school aren't only about learning new recipes, but gives me a chance to feed the hungry. This makes my day even more awesome. So follow me as the days go on and I grow to become Chef Candy.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

It's 97 in Charlotte today and it's HOT HOT HOT! But that didn't keep our first two Second Helping employees, Monique and Candice, from their class at Community Culinary School.

﻿﻿

Monique cooking up a storm

Community Culinary School is a great organization that offers free training to difficult-to-employ clients, preparing them for jobs in the culinary field. Monique and Candice are learning how to slice bread (just two strokes), to roll their knives when they chop onions and make a mean hummus.

As part of their training, they also get to help other people. Through Community Culinary School's partnership with Friendship Trays (Charlotte's Meals on Wheels), culinary school students prepare hundreds of trays for home bound people who can't cook for themselves. Monique and Candice also tend and harvest local produce from an on-site garden. The two talented chefs-to-be will graduate in August and will transition immediately to working on Second Helping's first venture, a coffee cart in a building uptown.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Changed Choices took part in Belk’s Charity Day and many wonderful volunteers helped us for free!

Belk Stores have aCharity Day twice each year (April and November). On Saturday, April 16th they will have a special advertised sale from 6AM-10AM where everything in the all Belk stores is from 20% to 70% off storewide, including some special savings on rarely discounted brands. (See attached brochure) The only way to enter the stores during those hours is if you have a charity ticket. These tickets are purchased from area charities, or Belk, at a cost of $5 and then can be redeemed during sale hours for $5 off your purchase.

Changed Choices is one of the charities this year and our job is to sell the tickets. Each ticket cost $5 and we (CC) get to keep the entire $5 for each ticket we sell. Only one $5 ticket, per person, is needed to enter the store, but one person can help CC by purchasing and redeeming more than one ticket. i.e. If a person is planning to make purchases at 5 different registers they can purchase and redeem 5 separate tickets – one at each register. This way we (CC) get $25 and they get the $5 refunded to them at each register when they present the ticket and make their purchases.

Although we are working with the Belk at South Park, the tickets are good at any Belk store in NC, SC, VA, GA on April 16th from 6-10am.

CC can also participate in the money Belk collects from the sales of tickets by Belk employees (“the pot”). We do that by our volunteer hours at the store. We can sit at a table at an assigned South Park Belk entrance and sell advance tickets to the sale. We get to keep 100% of the proceeds from those ticket sales. We have only about 3 slots left ( 1-5pm on April 11, 12, 13) – please see or email Ruth Snyder if you are interested.

Finally, the day of the event we must have some volunteers at the South Park Belk from 5:45-10am. The more volunteer hours we have, the larger our share of the “pot” of Belk ticket sales. The “Pot” is allocated to charities based on their percentage of volunteer hours at the South Park store. Volunteers will be assigned a location within the store where they will help customers find sizes, clean up displays, etc. and some will be at entrances selling tickets for the “pot” (all ticket sales at the store on the day of the event go into the “pot”).

Finally, beginning March 30th, you or anyone you sell a ticket to, can Pre-purchase sale items if you have a Belk charge card. (If you need a charge card, let us know – we can get that set up as well and will earn $8 for that!) Go to the store, select your merchandise take it to the cashier with your $5 Charity ticket. They take your Belk charge card information and then set aside your merchandise in a locked storage. On April 15th, they will ring up the sale, using the Charity Day sales price. You may then pick up your merchandise any day and any time after 10 AM on April 16th. That way, you can beat the mobs on April 16th, get the size and color you want, and work the event without missing out on the sale.